251 - [Americana]. BENZONI, Girolamo

[Americana]. BENZONI, Girolamo Novae novi orbis historiae, id est, Rerum ab Hispanis in India Occidentali hactenus gestarum Libri tres. (Geneva), Eustache Vignon, 1578. In-8., (16) ff., 480 pp., (7) ff. (including errata). Soft contemporary vellum (facsimile title page, slightly faded; small tear in the margin on p. 223; a few faint foxing spots; a few old handwritten inscriptions in ink). Latin first edition, published by the Protestant Urbain Chauveton and expanded to include Chauveton’s translation of Nicolas Le Challeux’s *De Gallorum Expeditione in Floridam*, concerning the massacre in Matanzas, Florida, of French Lutheran colonists by the Spanish. An Italian traveler born in Milan, Girolamo Benzoni (c. 1519–c. 1570) left his homeland at the age of 22 to set sail for the New World, where he spent fourteen years studying this new continent and its inhabitants. Upon his return to Italy in 1556, he set about compiling his notes, and in 1565, he published his *Historia del Mondo nuovo* in Venice—a firsthand account of what he had seen there, interwoven with historical narratives drawn from contemporary Spanish works. In his account, Benzoni paints an unflattering picture of the conquistadors. Banned in Spain, the work enjoyed impressive success in Europe, as evidenced by editions in Italian, German, Dutch, French, English, and Latin. Brunet I, 779–780. Duviols, pp. 178–184. Duviols, 178–184. Brunet I, 779–780.